Many Universities and the people whom run the educaitonal system are showing a deep concern about the lack of engineering and math majors in the United States. Our system, when compared to countries such as China and Poland, is unbelievably embaressing. The percentage of literacy in the formerly mentioned countries is in the 99% range; the figures for the United States aren’t even noteworthy. The lack of students with engineering and math majors can be explained by going into the life of our students from elementary up to high school. The teachers in a elementary school are generally passionate about their work because they want their young pupils to be as smart as they can help them to be. They have this magical spark about their students education. Did I mention fail to mention that they are actually qualified to teach the classes that they teach? It’s ironic how high school teachers are generally under-qualified for the classes they teacher, or they have a lack of enthusiasm for the subjet they are the teachers of.

My interest in science began in the 3^rd grade with my science teacher, Mr. Davidson. He was, and still is, one of the most passionate teachers I’ve known because he made science fun. Chemistry has never been my niche, physics is… or was.

My high school is located in podunk Bastrop, a place I didn’t choose to move to, but have grown somewhat attatched to. The country is operated by many of the old roots of the town and you can tell that their families have ran for many generations. So it would seem logical why the school district might not make too big of a deal out of the under/un-qualified teachers that are teaching the students.

Physics has been interesting to me since freshmen year, but it isn’t anymore thanks to a teacher who is not ecstatic about theacing the subject he is paid for. The labs, albeit fun, suffer from a serious lack of a get-your-hands-dirty attitude that I want out of the class. Students who are in hard classes need help on the work the moment they don’t understand the sbject work being taught; you need an explanation from the teacher then, not later, not the next day or 30 minutes from the present time. Getting help in physics requires that I raise my hand for 10-15 minutes, shouting the teachers name, in order to get his attention long enough for him to stop talking to the seniors at the front of the class and get his ass to the back of the class to help me and the other students one the problems that we need help on; he helps me for 5 minutes until the seniors distract him again he goes back to the front of the class, not to return again for another 10-15 minutes. He worked for Advanced Micro Devices and Compaq and I know he is smarter and could do better, but he wears this mask of laziness when he is teaching. Seniors may deserve help from the teacher, but they should be talking with the teachers about the classwork, notes and any problems they have, but both my teacher and the seniors have a problem with doing what they should be doing. For a teacher to join in on students conversations while he is giving us notes, or classwork, just isn’t fair on the rest of the class. For some of the students in the classroom, they enjoy it when he goes off to talk with seniors, but for those who want to learn more about physics and be knowledgable in it, we are screwed.

What a shame our public education system has become. It makes me almost want to go to a private school and get a real education from a teacher who understands that they are there to teacher and help students, not socialize. I am no longer passionate about physics like I used to be. Thanks a lot, you just lost another engineer for our country.

More to come…